We always pulled out all the stops and used everything that's been available to help her body deal with all the challenges it's faced.

Which treatments did she benefit from the most?

Of course, there were a number of surgeries. All very important, some of them life-saving. A surgery is an invasive but effective, and sometimes the only way, of dealing with some health problems. The decision to subject your dog to surgery cannot be made lightly, but one shouldn't refuse a surgery just because it is a surgery.

It is important to evaluate the situation, the options and predicted outcomes, and if surgery has the most benefit to offer, then it is the thing to do.

Then there are drugs. A drug treatment is sometimes the only option. Drugs, however, are a sharp, double-edged sword.

My granny used to say that once you start going to doctors, it is the beginning of your end. What she really meant by that was that once you start taking drugs, more drugs are needed to deal with the mess the first ones made, then more drugs to take care of the fallout of those .... and so on. She was a good example too. Eventually, she was taking so many different medications that he body was unable to deal with all that and the only treatment was taking her off all drugs.

For Jasmine, drugs were generally bad news.

When she was put on NSAIDs, it almost killed her. When she was given a buprenorphine injection, it almost killed her. In her last months, it appears that morphine, which was supposed to be her friend, turned on her too, and somehow played a significant role in the final crisis.

Steroids? Well, I was avoiding steroids for Jasmine for 9.5 years. Perhaps deep down I always knew they were going to be a bad news for her. With her neck events, though, she needed an immediate and aggressive treatment, and that meant prednisone. And it was a good decision under the circumstances. But I do believe that the steroids did contribute to the way things played out at the end as well.

Getting used to life jackets. We're going boating! How do I look in red?

Antibiotics, such as metronidazole and amoxil, were good friends to Jasmine. We always used them discriminately, only when it was really necessary, and I don't believe that Jasmine's resistant infection was something that we brewed. The strain was resistant to antibiotics Jasmine never came anywhere near of. As it seems, she already caught it as it were.

We never refused pain management for her, but I have to say that we never observed a significant benefit of the pain drugs, with perhaps the exception of codeine.The treatments Jasmine benefited from the most are those often considered non-conventional or alternative.

We were very happy that we decided to go down that path. We really wanted to do IV stem cells for her neck problems as well. Unfortunately, between waiting for her to be off steroids long enough, and following active infection, we were unable to include this any more.

Grannys know stuff, don't they? I always worked really hard on using as little drugs for Jasmine as possible. Sometimes one just cannot help it. But as long as other options are open, it's always better to try those first.

"My granny used to say that once you start going to doctors, it is the beginning of your end. What she really meant by that was that once you start taking drugs, more drugs are needed to deal with the mess the first ones made"

This is absolutely true and I think even more with animals than with people. People sometimes have a blind faith in medication that leads it to seem to be more effective than it is. Animals don't have that and their smaller bodies seem to be tossed about by the side effects of drugs much more than ours. Perhaps also there is less research done on drug treatments for animals before they are given to pets. Anyway, it's very useful to know what types of natural therapy had the best effects on Jasmine.

I'm sorry for your loss of Jasmine but I'm sure this site will go on helping other dogs.

As HVM, including Mr. Edgar Otto, founder, read this story of Jasmine, we begin to wonder how things would have been if Jasmine could have gone into the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy would definitely have helped with her pain.

You are correct when stated "sometimes drugs simply cannot be avoided" One thing for sure...there is no magic bullet in health, there are certain essential mechanisms in the body that must work correctly in order to be healthy. Put simply, inflammatory conditions, whether stress or injury, all benefit from a therapeutic dose of oxygen. Not only does oxygen regenerate cells, but oxygen under pressure increases tissue oxygenation by more than 10 times normal levels and healthy blood flow carries away waste products like cellular debris and dangerous free radical toxins.

I am sure that stem cell treatments helped her. The benefit of hyperbaric oxygen is that it increase stem cell production up to 8x normal levels without the need for surgery, needles, and does not require the patient to be off of steroids which many patients are on when being treated for inflammation.

We are doing everything we can to educate veterinarians and pet owners of the remarkable effects of HBOT.

Thank you for sharing Jasmine story it touched each one of our hearts.

As HVM, including Mr. Edgar Otto, founder, read this story of Jasmine, we begin to wonder how things would have been if Jasmine could have gone into the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy would definitely have helped with her pain.

You are correct when stated "sometimes drugs simply cannot be avoided" One thing for sure...there is no magic bullet in health, there are certain essential mechanisms in the body that must work correctly in order to be healthy. Put simply, inflammatory conditions, whether stress or injury, all benefit from a therapeutic dose of oxygen. Not only does oxygen regenerate cells, but oxygen under pressure increases tissue oxygenation by more than 10 times normal levels and healthy blood flow carries away waste products like cellular debris and dangerous free radical toxins.

I am sure that stem cell treatments helped her. The benefit of hyperbaric oxygen is that it increase stem cell production up to 8x normal levels without the need for surgery, needles, and does not require the patient to be off of steroids which many patients are on when being treated for inflammation.

We are doing everything we can to educate veterinarians and pet owners of the remarkable effects of HBOT.

Thank you for sharing Jasmine story it touched each one of our hearts.

I know the slippery slope of drugs first hand. My Mom was terminally ill and had to take a lot of drugs. They took a huge toll on her health though. In the end it was unclear if the drugs prolonged her life or were what cause the things that killed her.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss of Jasmine. I know it is hard. I can see that you are trying to push through and help bring some positives by helping others through your experience. Take care of yourself and your family.

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Disclaimer: Information published on this blog are my opinions and findings the way I understand them. I try to provide good information, but my main goal is to get you to get educated and come to your own understanding of things.